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Right in the middle of the holidays when mainstream media organizations were distracted and short staffed, the finance ministry for the European Union announced that cash transactions over 500 euros would soon be banned.

“Any transaction in excess of 500 euros will soon only be allowed via credit or debit card or by check, according to a plan by the Finance Ministry aimed at combating tax evasion. The ceiling for cash transactions is to be lowered from 1,500 euros today to 500 euros and could be reduced further over in the course of 2013. Ministry sources say that in the first quarter of the new year all companies and certain self-employed individuals will have to obtain the POS (point-of-sale) terminals that provide for card transactions.”

“The changes we are planning for 2013 include incentives to encourage citizens to use means of electronic payment in order to attain greater transparency in transactions and to combat tax evasion that is facilitated by the use of cash,” Deputy Finance Minister Giorgos Mavraganis told Kathimerini.

“As you know, transactions in excess of 1,500 euros are currently not allowed to be conducted in cash. We will have to review this limit and generally we must see how we can make it easier for Greeks to change their years-long habit of paying for goods and services in cash and instead use other means of payment. This is a problematic situation in our country that has to change, albeit without upsetting social cohesion,” the deputy minister added.

In other words, they have already taken a significant amount of your privacy and ability to trade freely, so this tiny bit extra step shouldn’t matter. The finance minister also pulled no punches in stating that this was a measure to gather more information on citizens to ensure that they pay their extortion fees to the state.

The bureaucrat also explained that legislation would be coming very soon, but gave no details into the specifics of the legislation. When asked of the details his only reply was that:

“Rewards to citizens who use electronic means of payment as a rule are in other countries provided through gifts or money. We still have to examine certain issues pertaining to European Union legislation and we will have to think very hard about how forms of bonuses in transactions have worked in other countries”

Since the EU is a testing ground of sorts for the international bankers and think tanks, it is likely that these policies will spread to other countries.

It has long been known that a globally monopolized, intangible currency has been a primary goal of the elite, and unfortunately it seems that this part of the plan is unfolding successfully for them.